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Lean Latin, Go Global
As Latin music continues to grow, Deep Dive looks at what’s happening now and what’s next, from the current explosion of regional Mexican acts like Grupo Firme to the new wave of stars. Plus: a data-driven look at the top Latin acts globally, and a directory of key labels, bookers, digital marketers and other businesses. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Billy Corgan Renews Publishing Deal With Warner Chappell
By the release of 1995’s Billboard 200-topping Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness — the group’s third and most successful album — The Smashing Pumpkins had cemented themselves as genre-defining hitmakers. In 2012, the now-classic double album — released on Virgin Records, as well as the previous two — officially reached RIAA diamond status after selling over 10 million copies. Since the peak of their success in the mid-1990s, the group has continued with a revolving door of members, held in orbit by Corgan’s steadfast leadership and vision. Aside from a five-year hiatus from 2000-2005, The Smashing Pumpkins continued to tour and record, releasing a slew of albums and EPs in the wake of Mellon Collie‘s release...
Why UMG’s Public Debut Boosted Warner & Other Music Stocks Too
Demand for UMG shares may have helped two more music companies: the share prices of French music distributor Believe SA and U.S. music rights company Reservoir Media increased 3.1% and 11.6%, respectively, on Tuesday. Investors also appeared hungry enough for UMG to purchase shares of Pershing Square Holdings, which has a 10% stake in UMG, and drive its share price up 5%. Sensing an opportunity, WMG’s owner, Access Industries, sold 2.34 million shares to Morgan Stanley & Co. on Tuesday for an unspecified amount. WMG could benefit from the added liquidity to the market. Although the shares represent less than 0.5% of WMG’s outstanding shares, WMG’s float – shares available for trading – represent about 19% of its shares, according to multiple financial sources. (UMG says its float is 42...
Australia’s Top Promoters Launch Contest for Concert Tickets, But You Must be Vaccinated to Apply
To be eligible, you must be over 18; be a resident of Australia; enter within the competition window (Sept. 15-Nov. 30); answer a simple question; and “be fully vaccinated under the Australian national COVID-19 vaccination program,” a statement reads. Winners will get a plus-one to see the likes of Dua Lipa, Alanis Morissette, Kiss, Lorde, David Gray, Tyler, the Creator and many others, with the concerts calendar adding dates on a daily basis. The novel campaign is an extension of #VAXTHENATION, a nationwide call-out launched earlier this month, and led by hundreds of musicians, industry leaders and businesses. It’s an initiative of the so-called LIVE Alliance, a gathering of industry stakeholders and advocates, including the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australi...
Universal Music’s Going Public: Here Are Your Options for Buying a Share
But U.S. investors won’t have easy access to UMG shares because they’re trading on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange, not a U.S. exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. So, besides Tuesday’s listing starting at 3 a.m. EST, U.S.-based investors will have other complications getting in on the action. Some brokerage accounts that cater to international trading, such as Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab, provide access to exchanges in dozens of countries. However, these accounts are good for frequent, serious investors, not casual investors who might be burdened by tax issues, fees and currency fluctuations. Alternatively, a U.S. individual can eventually buy shares of a mutual fund that owns shares of UMG, or an exchange traded fund that includes UMG. The benefit is a...
China’s Version of TikTok Limits Kids’ Screen Time to 40 Minutes Per Day
TikTok owner Bytedance is set to bring in screen time caps for Douyin, the Chinese version of the phenomenally successful app, for users under 14 years old as Beijing continues to crack down on the influence of tech companies in the country. According to a report in Bloomberg, Douyin made significant changes to its ‘youth’ mode last week, limiting daily usage time to a maximum of 40 minutes for those aged under 14 and also banning them from accessing the app from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The company has now also rolled out a new youth-orientated version on Douyin, dubbed Xiao Qu Xing or ‘Little Fun Star,’ that, via its algorithm, promotes and prioritizes more educational videos and allows users to like but not upload their own clips. You Deserve to Make...
In India’s Price-Sensitive Market, Will Customers Finally Pay For Streaming?
Only two countries — China (45% ad-supported), the seventh-biggest market, and Venezuela (58%), IFPI’s lowest-ranked sector — rely more on ad-supported audio streams than India (38%). And China, for the first time, generated more revenue last year from subscription-supported streams than ad-supported streams, IFPI figures show. Lodha, who previously was an executive at hospitality chain OYO Rooms, says it’s time to change India’s revenue paradigm. To help Gaana regain its edge in India’s crowded streaming market against its well-financed competitors, he’s focusing on boosting subscription income, which he says is more important than hitting Gaana’s target of 500 million MAUs — a figure at which he says the streaming platform would finally turn profitable. Subscription income fell from 33% ...
Nashville Labels Turn to Pop Partners as Streaming Changes the Game
This kind of arrangement is growing more common to the point that every big Nashville label now works with a pop counterpart. Sony Music Nashville has teamed with RCA Records to promote several acts including Tenille Townes and Kane Brown, who has released songs with several acts on RCA’s pop roster, including Khalid and H.E.R. At first, Brown’s deals were renegotiated per song, but as it became clearer that the country star would continue to delve into pop, SMN and RCA now have a “broader partnership” for the “Be Like That” singer, says SMN executive vp/COO Ken Robold. “Basically it was [RCA Records COO John] Fleckenstein and I coming up with what we thought was a fair deal.” While he wouldn’t give specific percentages, Robold says RCA is “incenti...
Harvey Mason Jr. on Recording Academy’s Future: ‘We Needed to Improve and We Needed to Evolve’
Still, he’s the first to admit there is plenty more progress to be made in his efforts to “modernize everything about the Academy,” including looking at new areas of revenue, making sure the Grammy voting process is as transparent as possible, and leading industry standards on diversity. Mason started his tenure forged by fire, as chairman of the board of trustees he stepped into the interim president/CEO position in January 2020 after the Academy suspended his predecessor, Deborah Dugan, for alleged misconduct only five months after she’d been hired. Dugan, who was officially fired in March 2020, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just days after being put on leave alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and improper business dealings by the Academy...
Sound Royalties Acquired by GoDigital, MEP Capital in ‘High Eight-Figure’ Deal
Founded in 2014 by Alex Heiche and backed by York Capital, Sound Royalties provides funding to music creators against royalties from all major collection societies, labels, publishers and distributors for a finite duration. Creators who utilize the service get to keep their copyrights, as well as ongoing royalty cash flow over the amount financed. The company caters to both emerging artists, songwriters and producers and established hitmakers, including the likes of DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Pitbull, Rich Robinson and Wyclef Jean. In his own statement, Heiche said that joining GoDigital “will enable us to expand our technology platform and grow more rapidly, while preserving the ability for creatives to speak and work directly with our experienced Royalty Specialists to ensure they receive the...
Twitch & Music Publishers Nearing Licensing Deal
Amazon-owned Twitch has operated under the DMCA for years without backlash, but ever since the pandemic turned the music industry’s attention to Twitch for livestreaming concerts, spurring huge growth for the platform, music trade organizations like the NMPA and RIAA have accused Twitch of taking advantage of the DMCA to avoid paying for music — similar to the way the organizations have pressured TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to sign licensing deals in the past. So the two organizations have flooded Twitch with tens of thousands of takedown requests over the past year, forcing Twitch to the negotiation table by frustrating its users. In response, Twitch vp/head of music Tracy Chan has reiterated that Twitch does not tolerate copyright infringement, arguing that Twitch’s monetiza...
Can Social Tokens Pave a New Future for Music? BitClout’s Still Banking On It
“It was almost too good to be true,” says Udell, who has worked with artists like Krewella and ZHU. “All these people involved? Really? But then I read the white paper, and I was super inspired.” That white paper described a platform resembling Twitter, where users have profiles and can post, like, comment and share content. Anyone who joins the platform gets a creator coin in their name, the value of which theoretically fluctuates depending on that person’s social standing and how many coins are in circulation. Users can then can buy and sell each other’s coins using the platform’s native cryptocurrency, BitClout. (“If Elon Musk succeeds in landing the first person on Mars, his coin price should theoretically go up” because more users would buy his coin...
